CHA YI Teahouse

So, I really doubled down on the hojicha during 1001 Pots because I didn’t just grab a pot of hojicha. I also got a hojicha affogato! I thought that was such a smart offering on the menu because it was a hot day an the affogato was a really great treat to cool down with. Plus, rich and roasty hojicha with super creamy vanilla ice cream? Oh, that is a match made in heaven!!

It was also cool because, like with the drinks, the affogato was served in a piece of pottery from one of the exhibiting artists. In particular, they were serving them in matcha bowls and I ended up picking out one with a really beautiful mix of white and dark brown clays swirled together in a nerikomi style – I thought it really beautifully reflected the colour contrast of the steeped hojicha and the ice cream mixing together in the affogato.

I actually ended up buying a piece from the artist who made the matcha bowl. I thought all of her worked was STUNNING and I did debate getting a matcha bowl since the style was so different from anything else I own, but I was trying to be very mindful of storage and I just own so many matcha bowls already. The teacup I grabbed is STUNNING though and had the same mix of white and brown clays.

Pot of tea!

So, in addition to all the ceramics/pottery for sale and the art installations, at 1001 Pots there was a little cafe/tea house area set up where you could grab tea or coffee and an assortment of locally baked goods. Ironically, it might be the only thing I didn’t take photos of.

I spent a few hours at 1001 Pots and in the middle of that excursion I took a tea break because I was exhausted and needed to sit and drink some caffeine. The set up was very, very cool. Basically, depending on what you ordered, you’d get to select a piece of pottery to drink from – all of which had been made by the different exhibiting artists. There was a STUNNING mix of mugs, yunomi cups, teapots, and matcha bowls.

I went for a pot of hojicha, and I ended up picking out a really nice teapot with a rich, glossy jade green glaze and a smaller yunomi cup with a hagi glaze over a red clay base. Both pieces were so stunning! I thought it was also very cool all the teas were from CHA YI Teahouse, which is a tea company from rural Quebec. Not Val David (where 1001 Pots is), but fairly close by. Mostly they were serving Japanese teas with a strong emphasis on matcha, but there were a few Chinese teas scattered on the menu too.

I went with my tried and true hojicha and even though I hadn’t specifically had the one from CHA YI before it was exactly the grounding moment I needed during this day trip. Very cozy, golden roast with lots of notes of toasted grains and dark honeys. I think it was perfect for the day, and in particular it felt verrrryyyy well matched with the stunning yunomi cup I was drinking it from. Just very atmospheric!

Given my interest in any unsmoked lapsang that crosses my path, it’s no surprise this ended up in my cart. The low price made me pause, but didn’t deter me. I steeped 6 g of leaf in 120 ml of 195F water for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of honey, peach, hay, wood, and florals. The first steep has notes of grilled peach, honey, hay, malt, raisins, tannins, florals, and wood. The next steep adds orange, sweet potato, herbs, minerals, and more tannins, with a bit of that silky, viscous texture I associate with lapsang. In the next couple steeps, I get the earthy, forest floor notes I sometimes find in unsmoked lapsangs, along with less apparent fruit, honey, minerals, malt, and tannins. This lapsang is not particularly fruity, though the honey gives it some sweetness. Steeps five and six are more earthy, with honey, sweet potato, hints of peach and orange, tannins, and malt. Subsequent steeps have notes of honey, earth, malt, minerals, wood, and tannins.

This is a decent unsmoked lapsang, especially if you want something honeyed and earthy instead of fruity. However, I admit I’m kind of a lapsang snob, and I look for those upfront floral, fruity flavours. I also found the tea a bit tannic, particularly as the session progressed.

This is another green oolong that I received in my custom tasting set. I’ve had a few Chilai Shan oolongs, but none that I remember. I steeped 6 g of leaf in 120 ml of 195F water for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of lilac, honey, and orange. The first steep has notes of tangerine, honey, butter, orange blossom, lilac, other florals, and grass. The orange and orange peel are particularly prominent in the next steep, and the florals are a bit more like the wildflowers mentioned in the vendor’s description. In steeps three and four, I get delicate wildflowers, orange, orange blossom, herbs, and grass, and the aroma at the bottom of the cup is lovely. The next couple steeps feature soft orange, honey, butter, florals, and herbs (lavender?), plus spinach and grass as the tea starts to fade. The final few steeps have a nice floral aroma, but the taste is mainly of spinach and grass.

This tea gave me a few very nice steeps, but faded quickly. The honey, orange, and florals made for an ethereal combination in this unusually cold weather. It’s a little more subtle than the Shan Lin Shi, and I’d say I enjoyed that tea a bit more.

I have both the sommeil thé and tranquilithé tea from this tea house and I think I prefer the taste of this one. Less chamomile and more rose taste to it. But not a chemical rose taste. It’s very subtle.

I don’t drink tons of herbal teas but Whenever I need something warm without the caffeine, this one hits the spot. I add a tiny bit of sugar so that the flavours pop.

Solid chai. Awesome as a latte.

One of my favourite loose leaf teas! Awesome as a latte.

It was a busy day, but I still managed to sneak in a teacup or two of this purple/black tea. Pleasantly medium bodied with flavours of cassis, wild blueberries, and plums. The gentle fruity notes were a welcome taste. I’ve been leaning especially hard into smoked teas the last few weeks and they’ve been channeling their own very specific Spring/Summer vibes, but it’s nice to switch things up as it gets warmer and the flowers continue to bloom. I do find myself increasingly appreciating teas like this one, which makes me think of harvesting berries and other soft, gentle summer memories!!

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CsCcxt6OXRl/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P569kPE4dGQ

Gongfu!

I practically lost my mind over this tea session! This tea is mouthwatering with notes of sweet breads, amber honey, leather, & dark cacao complimenting a complex range of fruit notes that encompass tropical sweet guava jam, black currant, and candied plums – with a floral and spicy lilac undertone. The liquor is syrupy and smooth with a coating and lingering finish of perfumed sweet ‘purple’ fruit juices. There’s so much to unpack here with each steep; I am so enamored and impressed! One of the best sessions I’ve had this week, easily!!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CP_Mo5fAkFZ/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4qsjmLxhow

Very aromatic and full-flavored. In the mouth, a bright and fruity peach-apricot-osmanthus note melds perfectly with the rich and deep cocoa-honeyed plum body that’s balanced by woody tannins. A touch quieter pasty-french bread note tempers, creating a cohesive flavor profile. It made such a great morning tea that I never bothered to sit down and pick it apart. My only issue with this one is that it needs to be brewed long western to get my preferred cup, giving only 1 truly excellent steep; a shorter brewing time leaves it a little too high-pitched with a tart blood orange tone.

Thanks for the share, Leafhopper :)

This is the last of the six teas I bought from Cha Yi. It’s a darker Taiwanese oolong from spring 2020, which I grabbed near the beginning of June when this year’s teas were few and far between. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus three or four uncounted infusions.

The dry aroma is of berry jam, honey, and cookies. The first steep has notes of stewed raspberry, blackberry, currant, other red fruits, plum, honey, and cookies. The second steep adds some malt and mild tannins, mimicking the bite in raspberries and other berries. The third to sixth steeps are a lovely combination of peach, plum, muscatel, honey, cookies, and berries and have a long, fruity aftertaste. Honey and roast become more prominent in the seventh steep, although there’s still lots of berries and muscatel. The final steeps have notes of berries, muscatel, malt, pastries, butter, roast, earth, and minerals.

This is a fruity, crowd-pleasing oolong with many of the flavours I like. Featuring the typical jammy, stonefruit notes of Hong Shui oolongs, this tea is really enjoyable and is well worth the price. It’s also incredibly persistent, lasting well beyond the number of steeps I had planned. Definitely consider getting it if you buy from this company.

This is my penultimate tea from Cha Yi. The owner told me it’s from winter 2019, although harvest dates aren’t shown on the website. I’ve had somewhat lacklustre experiences with Cui Feng oolongs before, but this tea was relatively recent and available, so I bought it. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma of these unevenly sized, loosely rolled nuggets is of roses, other flowers, honey, and cookies. The first steep has notes of roses, peonies, orchids, honey, grass, and cookies, and as expected, it’s somewhat sweet. The honey and florals continue to get stronger in the next three steeps, and there are hints of grape and maybe honeydew melon. The sweetness and florality continue until almost the end of the session, joined by increasingly prominent notes of grass, spinach, and other veggies.

This is an elegant, undemanding oolong with lovely rose notes that persist throughout most of the session. If it didn’t entirely grab my attention, neither did it present any off flavours. Of the three high mountain oolongs I tried from Cha Yi, the Ali Shan was my favourite, which surprised me given my ambivalence about oolongs from this region. I’d highly recommend this company, particularly for Canadians who can’t order directly from Taiwan for the time being.

I indulged in some retail therapy over the stressful pre-holiday period, and this tea was included as a free sample with my order. I remember enjoying this tea a few years ago and am happy to revisit it. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml porcelain pot using 195F water for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

I opened the sample bag to sniff it before reading the label and mistook it for a Bai Hao, which is a compliment in my books. The dry aroma is of apricot, plum, muscatel, cocoa, and honey. The first steep has lush notes of apricot, peach, plum, muscatel, honey, pastry, osmanthus, and malt. The honeyed fruit continues into the second steep, with some malt and wood. The next couple steeps are heavy on the apricot and plum, with a nice pastry and floral background and some wood and malt to balance things out. The honey is particularly noticeable in the next couple steeps, along with the pastry and fruit. The tea doesn’t change too much, but wow, do I like these flavours. By the eighth steep, the malt and gentle tannins become more prominent. The final few steeps emphasize honey, malt, earth, grass, and tannins.

This tea is as pleasant as I remember it being a few years ago. It’s an excellent substitute for fruit cake for those who don’t actually like fruit cake. I gave it an extra point over my previous rating because I like this flavour combo so much.

This tea is from spring 2020. The curly leaves still have some give to them, which testifies to its freshness. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of honey, cocoa, and stonefruit. The first steep features honey, raisins, malt, muscatel, and peach. The second steep adds plum and more peach and muscatel, making it a jammy peach/raisin combination. This tea just keeps getting fruitier. In the third and fourth steeps, the stonefruit really takes off and the plums/peaches balance the grape/raisin notes. The honey and faint malt bring it all together. Steep five sees a return to the raisin/grape notes, and honey, malt, wood, and slight tannins gradually take over as the session goes on. The final steeps have notes of honey, wood, tannins, and minerals.

The love child of Doke Black Fusion and a black Dan Cong, this is a fantastic tea. If it has one fault, it’s that the stonefruit disappears too quickly, but the remaining steeps are still tasty and interesting. I’m glad I picked this one up.

When I made my recent order from Cha Yi, they had an option where you could let the owner pick teas for you up to a certain amount. I decided to go with it, and this is one of the teas he gave me. It also turned out to be a repeat from my last Cha Yi order. I steeped 6 g of leaf in 120 ml of 195F water for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus some long, uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma is of pineapple, pastry, and orchids. The first steep tastes like pineapple pound cake, just as the vendor’s notes promise, along with cream, orchid, sweet pea, and grass. The second steep tastes even more like a pineapple pound cake, with maybe some coconut mixed in. (My cup disappeared in about a second.) There’s more of the pineapple coconut awesomeness in the next couple steeps, though with faint hints of vanilla, spinach, grass, florals, and herbs. Hints of pine and freesia show up in the next couple steeps, with the pineapple pound cake starting to fade but still being the main element. In steeps seven and eight, the pound cake is more prominent than the pineapple, and the florals, herbs, spinach, and grass start taking over. The tea ends predictably with grass, spinach, and florals, with some pineapple popping out occasionally.

The last time I had this tea, it didn’t map onto the pineapple pound cake profile the vendor described, but this time, it was incredibly accurate. It also wasn’t due to the power of suggestion because I looked up my previous note after drinking the tea. This vendor doesn’t have the equipment to vacuum seal his teas, so the last batch may have been exposed to the air for too long. I have 3 g of this tea left and will be drinking it ASAP. This harvest is truly amazing!

After years of neglect, Steepster suddenly changing comes as a surprise. I hope that with the new owners, the community will get some love and some of the spam and posting issues will be resolved. However, I have an old computer and use IE11, neither of which are great for a flashy new site, so I thought I’d better post some reviews while I still can.

According to the owner, this oolong is from spring 2019. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of cookies, flowers, and candied orange. The first steep has notes of cookies, honey, orchids, lilacs, spinach, and cream—no orange to be found. The orange makes a slight appearance in steep 2, along with the promised cocoa butter, though I would never have made that leap without the website description. The third steep has notes of orange, honey, spinach, cookies, cocoa butter, and faint flowers. The orange continues in the next three steeps, and is joined by orange blossom, veggies, and grass. The tea fades quickly after that, though the steeps are still enjoyable.

This is an above-average oolong that I wouldn’t immediately peg as a Shan Lin Xi. I loved the complexity of flavours, though as with many high mountain oolongs, I only got five or six really good steeps. Contrary to my usual preferences, I liked the Alishan better, perhaps because it’s newer.

Each spring, I get caught up in the hype around the new green teas, even though I know I don’t particularly care for their vegetal, grassy profiles. This year, I managed to prevent myself from ordering large amounts of tea I’d feel guilty about not drinking, but still couldn’t resist the pull entirely. Hence this 25 g pack of Liu An Gua Pian, which is something that I liked before, even when I accidentally dumped boiling water over it.

That brings me to the other reason green tea and I don’t get along: I have a terrible time brewing it correctly. I don’t have a variable temperature kettle, so getting the water to 176F is a waiting game. I also don’t have consistent gongfu parameters. And I only have huge mugs or small 150 ml teacups, so I don’t even know where to start with bowl brewing. Also, I probably have the wrong water because everyone seems to have the wrong water.

I steeped 5 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot using water cooled to 176F for 40, 20, 25, 30, 40, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds. The first three times came from the owner; the last few are just my guesses.

The dry aroma of these long, curly, rolled leaves is of toasted pumpkin seeds, seaweed, and veggies. The first steep has notes of pumpkin seeds, spinach, cabbage, green beans, and iodine. The iodine and cruciferous vegetables get a lot stronger in the second steep, which also reminds me of zucchini. This somewhat sweet, vegetal profile remains strong in the next couple steeps, and then takes over as the session goes on, with highlights of spinach, broccoli, and kale. Nonetheless, there is not much astringency.

Although it has not made me into a green tea convert, this Liu An Gua Pian has the profile I remember and is nuanced enough to be interesting. Still, however, it’s a lot of work for flavours I don’t particularly gravitate toward. Maybe I’ll finally stop buying these types of teas every spring, or maybe I’ll eventually learn to like these vegetal notes. Only time will tell.

I sipped down the last of my 25 g of this tea yesterday. I finally got up the nerve to use the clay houhin that Mrmopar sent me a while ago, and much to my surprise and relief, it didn’t break. Maybe I’m not a degenerate teapot murderer after all! This tea was extra floral and cookie-like because I used a larger amount in what I think might be a 100 or 110 ml pot. Sadly, the fruity notes weren’t as evident as they were in a porcelain vessel.

I’m sad to see this tea go and regret not picking up more in the company’s recent sale. (But then, if I restocked all the teas I enjoyed, my cupboard would be even fuller than it is now.)

Thanks again, Mrmopar, for the teapot!

This is my first oolong from the 2020 spring harvest. Yay! I ordered some tea from Cha Yi a week ago Friday and it arrived the next Monday, which is amazing in this time of long shipping delays. Canada Post is really doing its job! I usually don’t go for Alishans, but the owner recommended it and it was the only spring high mountain oolong available, so I took a chance. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of heady flowers, egg whites, candied tropical fruit, and honeydew melon. The first steep has the buttery Alishan florals (orchid, lilac), plus sweet melon, cookies, and grass. It has a nice, heavy texture and no astringency. The second steep continues to be floral, sweet, and a bit vegetal, with slight tropical fruit. The description mentions cocoa butter, and I can kind of see where they’re coming from. The next few steeps continue with the fruity/floral/buttery profile, although the vegetal notes get stronger. By steep six, the spinach and umami are starting to overpower the fruity florals, but this tea retains some sweetness until the end of the session.

This is a high-quality Alishan with many of the fruity notes I like. Although the oolong fades quickly, those first few steeps are great, which is sort of what one can expect from this type of tea. I look forward to trying the two winter 2019 oolongs I purchased from this company.

After trying a few kinds, this is my favourite Earl Grey! It makes an amazing London fog too, just throw a couple of lavender buds in the mix while steeping.

Taste is a bit artificial with a strange aftertaste. I bought this to try as a latte and it won’t be replacing their earl grey for me anytime soon. Will give it a try traditionally brewed to compare.

Gongfu!

I’ve been really challenging myself to place less tea order this year (to mixed success), and to “rediscover” forgotten samples from my tea stash instead. This unique Japanese oolong was a fantastic tea to come back to! It was smooth with a light to medium body and just such an intensely fresh and floral aroma. Top notes were a bit more grassy with aspects of dandelion greens, sugar cane, and bamboo before sliding into something a little more lush and dewy; peony, orchid, and a strong note of gardenia. Love the intricacies of how the flavours seem to dance off one another, and the fleeting sweetness on the tail end of the sip. There’s a very soothing, late summery kind of quality to the overall profile – it was a great tea to revisit!!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DABouo8Obav/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E5WL_yzBoQ